WATCH: A visit to Denbighshire's electric vehicle fleet and charging points

The council's EV fleet in Bodelwyddan has 28 live EVs, used by such services as highways and maintenance, waste, traffic teams, and social services.

It is also used for public transport, such as taxis for school runs, or its 16-seater, demand-responsive minibus based in Ruthin; the only one of its kind in the UK.

Meanwhile, in Rhyl, the first EV charging park of its kind in Wales, and the second-largest in the UK, is nearing completion at West Kinmel Street Car Park.

Underground works are complete on the car park site, and the substation which provides the electrical supply to the chargers is almost finished.

It will now see the installation of the charger units, and the site resurfaced complete with new signage and car bay markings on the ground.

The construction of the 36-vehicle capacity hub, also funded by the Welsh Government, is expected to be completed by the end of October, with the charge park going live by the end of November.

The hub will be a mix of ‘fast’ 7kWh chargers for users who have no access to off-street parking and ‘rapid’ 50kW chargers for a quick top-up, and also to assist taxi drivers on the uptake of electric vehicles by minimising disruption to operational work time.

All the chargers at the hub will be open for public use.

A total of three of the parking bays and charging units will be allocated for disabled users.

The units will also offer a range of bilingual payment options, including contactless, app-driven and RFID cards.

Daytime and peak time users will still pay for a parking space at the hub, but the electric vehicle bays will have no parking charges levied between 5pm and 8am, like the rest of the car park.

In Prestatyn, two public charging points have been installed at Kings Avenue short stay car park, and have been operating since June.

Each 50kW charger will provide “rapid” charging facilities across four fully accessible parking bays.

Fleet officer, Martin Griffiths, said the success of the Prestatyn charging points has vastly exceeded initial expectations.

He said: "Since we opened it, Prestatyn has had 712 charging sessions and delivered 16,400 kWhs of power – that’s 60,000 miles. It's done extremely well.

"We’ve probably trebled what we expected it to be. I initially thought we’d probably get about five charges a week; at present, we’re getting about five a day, sometimes 10 or 12 at weekends."

One of the electric charging points at Kings Avenue, Prestatyn (Image: Newsquest)

These projects are part of DCC's fight against climate change, following the declaration of a Climate and Ecological Emergency in 2019 and adoption of the Climate and Ecological Change Strategy in 2021.

Funding for these “rapid” destination chargers, which are capable of replenishing most vehicle batteries to 80 per cent in less than an hour, was provided by the Welsh Government’s Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle Transformation Fund.

Though some residents have bemoaned the costs of these projects, Martin stressed that they are entirely grant-funded.

Others may be sceptical of their viability, given EVs are not overly prevalent yet (ONS stats state nearly 300 were privately registered in Denbighshire by the end of the last quarter).

But Martin is confident that, by laying the ground work now, these schemes will reap rewards in years to come, especially when second-hand EVs become more commonplace.

He added: "Weve waited a long time for the private sector to EV charging. That hasn’t happened, but we’ve gone for it.

"There's a miconception I see that we’re spending residents’ rates or council tax on this, but that couldn't be further from the truth.

"This department works tireleslly to secure funding that’s ring-fenced by the Welsh Government for EV charging. It’s all grant-funded.

"I'm really proud of the fact that it's cost Denbighshire nothing, and as time passes by, and we gain credibility, they're much likelier to continue giving us money, because we've made things happen.

"It's quite difficult to get grant funding; it’s a long, drawn-out process, and there have to be key community benefits."

A Denbighshire County Council "Eco Taxi". Photo: DCC (Image: Denbighshire County Council)

Martin first drove an EV himself roughly eight years ago while on holiday in Dordogne, France, and has been interested in them ever since.

He also took the Journal for a ride in one of DCC's electric taxis, which included such features as USB charging points inside its seats, a heated steering wheel, "eco", "normal" and "sport" driving mode, different levels of regenerative braking, and auto-steering.

Another depot, at Kinmel Park in Bodelwyddan, has two live charging points already, with a further six due to join them by the end of October.

He added: "The benefits to Denbighshire as a fleet are that it’s saving costs and carbon. The advances in technology are amazing, and these things are one-foot driving, so it mitigates some of the risk.

"It attracts staff, because we’re giving them the luxury of the newest technologies. We can manage the infrastructure and the energy delivery in-house, rather than be a slave to the oil industry and the diesel supplies.

"In the public domain, I was born and raised in Prestatyn, and I do my best to keep our places green and pleasant, as they’ve always been.

"They also drive round in relative silence – think of the benefits for people living in terraced houses on the side of the road, when they come to collect the bins."

On whether EVs are currently too much of a rarity in the region to justify the new Rhyl charging park, Martin said: "I've never bought a brand-new car, I've always bought second-hand.

"This technology is very new, but we’ll start to see, soon enough, that the second hand market will be there, and be very strong, and they’ll become affordable.

"I could buy a 10-year-old Vauxhall Corsa for £5,000 now – you’ll see that with EVs.

"Also, a lot of people take vehicles on lease hire nowadays, for three to five years, so you’ll see them flood the market.

"We've seen manufacturers pushing out EVs through Motability (charity which aims enable disabled people, their families and their carers to lease a new car, scooter or powered wheelchair, using their disability benefit).

"So, again, there's a strong market for second-hand EVs at the moment. Prices are expensive, but in three to five years, when these leases and Motability cars are all exchanged for newer versions, the market will be flooded with them.

"We might be in for a little bit of criticism now, that we’ve jumped the gun, but soon enough (it will pay off)."

DCC has also sought advice from Dundee City Council, which is among the pioneers for this technology in the UK with its "Drive Dundee Electric" scheme.

The feedback, Martin said, is that these projects will prove to be a long-term gain.

And with 36 charging points to be introduced at the Rhyl station, made of slower and faster chargers, he feels there will be enough to satisfy all sorts of motorists, from taxi and lorry drivers to residents living nearby.

Martin also takes pride in the scheme's affordability, with Prestatyn charging 45p per kWh, and believes the plans will have a positive impact on tourism in Denbighshire, too. 

He said: "They said to me that we’ll be in for a bit of ridicule at the start, because we’re at the forefront of it, but then, all of a sudden, it'll be: ‘When are you building more? We haven’t got enough.’

"It's capable of simultaneously charging 36 vehicles. The rapid charges are the ones predominantly targeted at taxi drivers – an hour on that charger, and your vehicle is full.

"The slower chargers on the site are targeted at residents and visitors, who are gonna sit there for four, five, six hours.

"Overnight charging is especially for residents, as there are no parking charges levied there after 5pm until 8am.

"Being under local authority ownership, we can manage the tariffs to keep them as low as you would probably be able to charge, whereas the private sector is looking for a margin for themselves.

"At Prestatyn, we charge 45p per kWh; that’s it. We’ve had it all grant-funded, so can keep the prices lower.

"To keep it under public control, we’re going to install DCC meters, so we’ll be able to keep prices low and manage it properly.

"There are a fair few operators of taxis that have EVs and hybrids now. (In Rhyl) there's a doctor's surgery nearby, a train and bus station for commuters, and towns to walk to."

The West Kinmel Street site will hopefully be declared open with a soft launch in late November, followed by a full opening day next spring.

Martin added: "At that point, we’ll have about six months' worth of data. We can guess at usage, but we guessed with Prestatyn, and it's probably trebled. 

"We really have thrown everything to get the public on board. One of them will do 330 miles on a full charge – most people don’t do that in a month. They're the way forward for most people."

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Cllr Barry Mellor, lead member for environment and transport, said: “We declared a Climate and Ecological Emergency in July 2019 and developed plans to become a net carbon zero and ecologically positive council by 2030.

“A large part of this is looking at how we can reduce the carbon footprint of our existing fleet vehicles, and I am really pleased to see how EVs have been embraced by our staff.

“It’s been good to see that, as well as electric vans coming in to support transport of goods and equipment, we have also had other non-carbon vehicles come online to support different services.

“There has been a lot of innovative thinking towards introducing EVs, such as the electric bus running our Ruthin Fflecsi Service and the electric mobile observatory van operated by our Countryside colleagues.

"I’m really proud to see this innovation continue as more of our services strive to reduce carbon output.

“We are also committed to supporting the public who want to move over to EVs as fossil fuel is phased out.

"I understand at this time that the impact of energy prices and the cost of living may make this choice difficult for some. 

"But we want to lead on getting the infrastructure in place, ready to use by residents and to also encourage more visitors to our county.

“A prime example of this is the West Kinmel charging hub; once online, there will be benefits to local residents who don’t have off-street parking to charge their vehicles.

"It will also help attract more people into Rhyl, with EV owners able to locate the site on a map, stop, and visit the town whilst topping up their car.

“We want to make sure the infrastructure is there for all across the county and I look forward to further charging points coming on line as we progress the rollout of public EV charge stations.”